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Apparatus and method for packet forwarding with quality of service and rate control

  • US 20060203721A1
  • Filed: 03/11/2005
  • Published: 09/14/2006
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for processing data packets received from a data network and forwarding the data packets to their destination according to a predefined transfer rate, the apparatus comprising:

  • at least one lower layer processing unit for receiving data packets from an external source and storing the data packets into an external memory buffer;

    a header extracting unit in communication with the at least one lower layer processing unit, the header extracting unit capable of extracting header information from each received data packet;

    a plurality of tables, each table having a plurality of entries of table information;

    a search engine arbiter for receiving the extracted header information from the header extracting unit and comparing the extracted header information against the plurality of tables, the search engine creating a new header information for each received data packet based on comparison results, the search engine further being capable of discarding the extracted header information based on the comparison results;

    a plurality of output queues, each output queue having an output rate and an availability indicator of queuing additional data;

    a random early drop module for receiving the extracted header information from the search engine arbiter and distributing the extracted header information among the plurality of output queues, the random early drop module monitoring the availability indicator in each output queue and being capable of discarding the extracted header information; and

    a plurality of transfer rate control modules for receiving the extracted header information from the plurality of output queues, each transfer rate control module being in communication with an output queue and controlling the output rate for the output queue, wherein the at least one lower layer processing unit receives the extracted header information and retrieves the data packet identified by the extracted header information and transmits the data packet to the destination identified in the new header information.

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